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1968 in literature
The year 1968 in literature involved some significant events and new books. Events *January 1 – Cecil Day-Lewis is announced as the new Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. * August – Tom Wolfe's books The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Pump House Gang are published on the same day. Both go on to become best-sellers and cement Wolfe's status as one of the generation's leading social critics, chroniclers of the counterculture of the 1960s and practitioners of New Journalism. * Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest, is published. * Glidrose Publications releases the James Bond novel, Colonel Sun by "Robert Markham" (a pseudonym for Kingsley Amis). Initially intended as a relaunch of the Bond book series following the death in 1964 of the character's creator, Ian Fleming, Colonel Sun instead ends up being the final book of the series (discounting a "biography" of Bond and a pair of film script adaptations) until John Gardner revives the literary James Bond in 1981. New books *Lloyd Alexander – The High King *Isaac Asimov – Asimov's Mysteries *James Blish – Black Easter *Nelson Bond – Nightmares and Daydreams *Elizabeth Bowen – Eva Trout *Richard Brautigan – In Watermelon Sugar *John Brunner **''Not Before Time'' **''Stand on Zanzibar'' *Anthony Burgess – Enderby Outside *Martin Caidin – The God Machine *Taylor Caldwell – Testimony of Two Men *John Dickson Carr **''Dark of the Moon'' **''Papa La-Bas'' *Agatha Christie – By the Pricking of My Thumbs *Arthur C. Clarke – 2001: A Space Odyssey *L. Sprague de Camp **''The Goblin Tower'' **''The Tritonian Ring'' *L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter – Conan of the Isles *August Derleth **''The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians'' **''Mr. Fairlie's Final Journey'' **''A Praed Street Dossier'' **''Wisconsin Murders'' *Philip K. Dick – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? *Allen Drury – Preserve and Protect *Lawrence Durrell – Tunc *Arthur Hailey – Airport *Michael Harrison – The Exploits of Chevalier Dupin *Georgette Heyer – Cousin Kate *Barry Hines – A Kestrel for a Knave *Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp – Conan the Freebooter *Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter – Conan the Wanderer *Robert E. Howard, Björn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp – Conan the Avenger *John Irving - Setting Free the Bears *Dorothy M. Johnson – Indian Country *James Jones – The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories *John le Carré – A Small Town in Germany *John D. MacDonald – Pale Gray for Guilt and The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper *Norman Mailer – Armies of the Night *Ruth Manning-Sanders – A Book of Mermaids *Robert Markham – Colonel Sun *Brian Moore – I Am Mary Dunne *Anthony Powell – The Military Philosophers *Jean Rhys – Tigers Are Better-Looking *Mordecai Richler – Cocksure *Robert Silverberg – The Masks of Time *Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn **''Cancer Ward'' **''The First Circle'' *Muriel Spark – The Public Image *John Updike – Couples *Jack Vance – City of the Chasch *Gore Vidal – Myra Breckinridge *John Wyndham - Chocky *John Christopher ** The Pool of Fire (1968) New drama *Alan Bennett – Forty Years On *Hugo Claus – Vrijdag *Thomas Kilroy – The Death and Resurrection of Mr Roche *Tom Stoppard – The Real Inspector Hound *Michel Tremblay - Les Belles-Sœurs Poetry *Rod McKuen – Lonesome Cities *George Oppen — Of Being Numerous Non-fiction * L. Sprague de Camp ** The Conan Reader ** The Great Monkey Trial * Carlos Castaneda – The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge * L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp – The Day of the Dinosaur * Paul R. Ehrlich – The Population Bomb * H. P. Lovecraft – Selected Letters II (1925–1929) * William Manchester – The Arms of Krupp: 1597-1968 * James Morris - Pax Britannica: The Climax of Empire * Charles Rembar – The End of Obscenity: The trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill * Adam Smith – The Money Game * Erich von Däniken – Chariots of the Gods * James D. Watson – The Double Helix Births *January 30 – Rhoda Shipman, comic book writer *May 27 - Ekow Eshun, British-Ghanaian writer, journalist and broadcaster *September 14 - Shuichi Yoshida, Japanese novelist *December 31 – Junot Díaz, Dominican-American novelist *''date unknown'' – K. V. Johansen, children's author Deaths *January 14 – Dorothea Mackellar, Australian poet, 82 *February 23 - Fannie Hurst, American novelist, 78 *April 16 – Edna Ferber, novelist, short story writer and playwright, 82 *April 25 – Donald Davidson, poet, 74 *May 1 – Harold Nicolson, biographer and husband of Vita Sackville-West, 81 *May 30 – Martin Noth, German Hebraist, 65 *June 1 – Helen Keller, deafblind author, political activist, and lecturer, 87 *September 29 - Sixto Pondal Ríos, Argentine screenwriter, poet and dramatist, 61 *October 13 – Sir Stanley Unwin, publisher, 83 *October 30 – Conrad Richter, novelist, 78 *November 17 – Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast author, 57 *November 25 – Upton Sinclair, novelist and politician, 90 *December 5 – Anna Kavan, novelist, short story writer and painter, 67 *December 20 – John Steinbeck, novelist, 66 Awards * Nobel Prize for Literature: Yasunari Kawabata Canada * See 1968 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. France * Prix Goncourt: Bernard Clavel, Les fruits de l'hiver * Prix Médicis: Élie Wiesel, Le Mendiant de Jérusalem United Kingdom * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Rosemary Harris, The Moon in the Cloud * Cholmondeley Award: Harold Massingham, Edwin Morgan * Eric Gregory Award: James Aitchison, Douglas Dunn, Brian Jones * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Maggie Ross, The Gasteropod * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Gordon Haight, George Eliot * Newdigate prize: James Fenton * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Robert Graves United States * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, W. H. Auden * Hugo Award: Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light * Nebula Award: Alexei Panshin, Rite of Passage * Newbery Medal for children's literature: E. L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Anthony Hecht, The Hard Hours * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Anthony Hecht, Mijn moeder Elsewhere *Premio Nadal: Álvaro Cunqueiro, El hombre que se parecía a Orestes *Viareggio Prize: Libero Bigiaretti, La controfigura References * Category:Years in literature